


Don't Ever Leave

by BlueFlashbang



Category: Little Witch Academia
Genre: Angst, Blood and Gore, Character Turned Into a Ghost, F/F, Murder, Paranormal, Stalking, Strangers to Lovers, akko and dianna are only there for a while and as written letters, just a little diakko is included i guess??, this is the only time i'll ever let sucy harass lotte unlike in the show
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 07:30:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16471376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueFlashbang/pseuds/BlueFlashbang
Summary: A new house is given to Lotte for her to live in, but strange occurrences begin to terrify her until she could stumble across what, or who might be in the house with her.





	Don't Ever Leave

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I have come once again to further add more fics and content in the Sulotte ship!! and well…I did my best, and I’m completely worn out with this AU….I’m not a strong writer when it comes to fics extending 5,000 words but I’ve been so positive about this one specifically that I threw myself overboard this week. I’m especially sorry if my writing style is overly tedious, unpolished or maybe too different and everyone is out of character somehow… it’s just been an exhausting month and I really wanted this to start this off in Halloween.
> 
> A little sidenote before beginning; this isn’t based off too much of the canon, but many elements of the fic pretty much are just to make everything work. For instance, Lotte still talks to faeries but she isn’t a witch. 
> 
> fic is inspired by the song ‘please never fall in love again by Ollie MN’. It might make a lot more sense once the next few chapters are finished.

The bus ride from Helsinki to who-knows-where had finally stopped driving, pulling over to an adjoining terminal. The hour long voyage that felt dismissingly short made the single passenger on board heave a sigh to the trip’s end. The lone traveler, a sunflower-blonde girl with freckles and red glasses, stands up from her seat and ineludibly stretches her limbs. Her luggage is dragged all the way across the center of the bus until the egress, the driver bidding a farewell on her way out. She waves her own goodbye and thanks them as soon as she steps out onto the terminal. Ah, finally…she could properly feel the icy breeze hovering over her physique now.

The vehicle drives away from the terminal, leaving the girl to walk to her actual destination by herself. A quiet highway neighbored the terminal while in between a rugged woods and a rock-strewn barrier. It was an ideal sight to look at, with or without snow on the way. The former passenger picks up her luggage again, which were simply two woven bags with an attached note written “For Ms. Yanson” dangling out.  
She chuckles a bit. “Dad’s getting too proper with his job. He could have just written “Lotte” instead.” she says smiling. “Oh well, now I have to carry all of this another mile away…”

Lotte had just visited her parents in the family kiosk situated in a small Helsinki township to gather some provisions. She hoped she could have spent the night in the property, but renovations were planned that will refute a good night’s sleep. So there was no time to waste after such an active morning. The blonde carried her things up-street and suited a stern look on her face. Tons of supplies were in her bags, and she was walking rather far from the terminal now. She lowered her head remembering how much she hated to hike with quite a package for her to carry. “Why must mom pack extra gifts for me to take home…..?” 

Thankfully, Lotte’s destination was the first sight to see once someone walks up street. She halts to exasperate again after some minutes have passed from walking and turns across the boulevard, where to be found was a rather odd building.  
It was a two story house…painted all white and red and built with an old Spanish-colonial design. It was an unusual sight considering all the houses nearby was native and traditional to the country. Perhaps the architect was just fond of such architecture, Lotte thought. She then gaits across the road and towards the house…which so happened to be her place of residence.

The blonde takes her steps onto the patio and then towards the front door. She unlocks it in a second, but quickly halts to step inside once she looked down on the “Trevetuloa” mat. Two envelopes of different colors were below her boot and bruising against the velcro. Picking them up, Lotte immediately recognizes the handwriting of the address and lets out a chuckle, beaming an excited grin and feeling eager to read its contents soon. “I thought they would never write back…!” she says jubilantly. So she turns the knob of the door and swiftly enters inside. The breeze was gone, now nothing but sheer silence and warmth was invading when the entrance shuts.

“Finally, home at last.” She thinks. “At least…it’s supposed to be home now.”  
The inside was not as what anyone would expect as Lotte gawks around the room. To her left was an open living room, her right was the entrance to the kitchen, and in front of her was simply a dim open space. Everything was just as foreign to her eyes. From the expatriate furniture to the stone walls and floors, it was actually as if the house was freshly built since yesterday. Not a hint of dust or dirt was anywhere either! The palettes of red, white, beige on the furniture with gold being the accent colors were especially exquisite to look at, and to think that despite the property being timeworn out front, it was flawless in the inside. 

Lotte hurries to the kitchen area to place all her provisions on a tabletop, still leaving them inside the bag without a care to bring them out and arrange them. Continuing, she comes back to the open space where a grand wooden staircase was directly facing the entrance she once stood by, which she also proceeds to ascent to reach the second floor. 

Her chosen bedroom was by the end of the hall, entering with a sense of relief now that she was where she wanted to be. The room was not the master’s quarters, more of like a guess room as it had a diminutive floor space. It was something Lotte favored better for it nearly had the same scope of her dormitory back in her old art school in England. Those were happier times, she thought. Nevertheless, the envelopes she picked up earlier were still on her grasp. And without delay, she puts herself by her wooden desk and situates her hand and the envelopes on the surface. Time for some reading....eventually.

...The weather out was favorably sunny yet the house was built in a way that no sunlight could ever enter her room. It was still rather bright as light traveled from the hall and reflected onto the room, but it was too dim for Lotte and no lightbulb was installed anywhere. The blonde relied on solely torchlights for her light-source…

She hums and analyzes her desk filled with miscellaneous. In a second, her hand reaches not for a lantern, not even a light source at all, but rather an iron basket with the shape of a skull. “There we go…” she says, carrying it near the envelopes and leaning her face a tad closer to the basket’s open cranium.

“Good afternoon…I’m back home early, just like I promised.” She whispers to it and pauses for a moment. “…Can you please come out of there for a moment?”

…Out of nowhere, the hollow inside of the basket brightened with blue light. An abrupt yelping noise that resembled the mew of a cat was perceived. Lotte was waiting patiently for the light to emerge, now retracting herself to make room. “Looks like a I woke him up.” She thought smiling.  
Slowly, crawling out of the skull was a Ghost…….the size of one’s palm. 

Peeping out of the basket was this small and guiltless face with its head engulfed with a weak fire. In fact, the whole small body of the entity was completely made of fire. It jumped outside of the basket in an impressive height and lands on the countertop, waving to Lotte with a diminutive yet cheerful grin.

“It’s good to see you too.” Lotte says amiably. “I was hoping we can read some letters together. All we need is some help with light.” She mentions while pointing at the sachets. “You wouldn’t mind, right?” 

The small spirit nods at her and looks towards the envelopes’ directions. He sits down, expanding the size of his flame to gradually increase some luminosity. Thankfully, the blonde’s little friend was only a spirit or there would be several marks on her desk by now.

…Lotte Yanson became familiar with the idea of faeries…They’re mythical beings that all come in different forms and often dwell in objects that have since been untouched. But all through her childhood, she never thought she could actually TALK to them and then expect an answer back. It was never terrifying to her, but more of an idea right out of a dream that she never wanted to be awake from. Some say she was psychic or maybe gifted by the gods, which she found was a little farfetched. But being a medium communicating with the other worldly was always very useful in times of assistance….

She pushes her glasses up and reads the written address yet again on the envelopes to feel more excitement. Anyone who had known of Dianna Cavendish would recognize her legibly cursive writing. She was an esteemed art school student Lotte knew considering her roommate dated her in the end of the year, so the letter inside must have been from any of them. She opens up the first envelope and unfolds the first message in it.

Quite unexpected, but in a relieving way…The salutation was written in Japanese and with lots of exclamations in the end. Lotte could read it perfectly; “O genki desu ka ??!!!!” which meant How are you, something she learned from her roommate. It later followed with a simple English paragraph.

_“It’s been a while since our graduation. How is everything back home? I heard you actually picked out the house Dianna talked about before you left. And looking at the pictures you sent, it really does look lovely!!! I sure hope we get to visit you once we also get our new place settled in.”_

The sound of a hyperactive girl’s voice ringing through her ear enamored Lotte so much. “Me too, Akko.” She utters. She missed having to hear her friend ramble about anything piercingly and obsessively on her opinions and aspirations.

_“Then again, Dianna also told me something about the house crawling with a bunch of spirits. I’m sure you can handle that though. You always seemed so nice whenever you talked to the little will-o-what-you-call-it back in our dorm. Anyway, please write back, Lotte! I miss you so much!!!_

_-You’re bestest friend Akko”_

She refolds the letter to a rectangle and puts it aside somewhere on the desk. It was a short message yet enough to warm her heart as her friend had not forgotten about her just yet. Now a promise was made to write back, hoping Akko could be a personal pen pal to get her through adjusting to the house.

Lotte picks up another envelope with the same penmanship of the address. Tearing open the pleat and pulling out the epistle, it was now distinctively different as expected. This one was from Akko’s now fiancée, Dianna Cavendish. 

_“Lotte,_

_It’s a joy to realize that you have inherited the house that I advocated. Indeed, the property has somewhat ripened and is far from what you are probably used to. Just remember that you have a choice to move out, and we can find you a better place here in England if you have not adjusted so well yet. I’m keeping this a secret from Akko for now, but I especially promise you that we would come to visit in a matter of weeks from now._

_Immediately, she was looking forward to their visit to the North. As for Dianna’s assumption of her feeling towards the house, she couldn’t be any more right. The extravagant style did not bewilder her as much as it would have, and having a big house all to herself felt very uncomfortable. But at the same time, she felt it would be even worse to move out and find another home. She just had to deal with eventual loneliness._

_“It’s also worth mentioning that the house you’re in is rumored to have untamed spirits in every corner. Akko has already told me about your ability to communicate with creatures beyond living, so I doubt any trouble with that._

_But there is something I must also warn you about concerning the spirits. Sure, there are the usual diminutive forms, but one in particular is extremely hostile and must be watched out for–––“_

Lotte stops reading, suddenly hearing the sound of a hard bump behind her. 

….  
THUD!  
….

She and the will-o-wisp look at each other and then behind their backs. The sound must have been in the same floor, it startled the blonde to hear something quite loud and sudden. Immediately, her curiosity was at a boiling point and abandoned the letter shortly as she decides to leave the room. The fire spirit hops on Lotte’s shoulder to help investigate.

“Is…anyone out there?” she inquired out in the hall, slight reluctance in her tone. More steps away from the room’s door were taken and progressed into the long and wide corridor. Lotte did not show any fear, well, she felt just a touch of fear. But it was too soon to express that, only a confused look with widened eyes was suited. She trailed a bit further, but unexpectedly stops walking and finds herself on the end of the corridor…where something had fallen off the wall.

By the blonde’s feet was a rectangular piece laying flatly on the floorboards. The exterior being wood and the entirety made out of thin paper, it had the features of a portrait that must have helped complimented the house’s interior. 

Lotte could not believe she disregarded how there was even a photo hanging by the end of the hallway this whole time. There were not a lot of paintings in the house, so how did she ignore this one? Without hesitating, she kneels down to pick up the portrait. But now there was something more to be confused about as she verged closer to the floor…

She swore this was never here before…A large variety of mushrooms were sprouting out of the wall. After inspecting, thank goodness they weren’t the poisonous kinds or the house would then be condemned in the first week. But still…how odd was this to see? Lotte looked around her surroundings to see if there were more mushrooms in the area. Close enough anyway; stems of fungi were beginning to grow out on her area. She wasn’t a botanist, but they looked freshly grown, as if they were cultivating in the blink of an eye, especially the pile of mushrooms by the portrait. 

She hums disarrayed, hopefully she could try to sort this all up later in the day. Somehow. Her attention goes back to where it originally was, being an ominous portrait on the floor. It picks up gently by Lotte’s grasp and ascends as soon as she stands back up. With a nail faultlessly punctured on the wall, she heaves the item gently back on the barrier and adjusts it to meet with the nail. 

“Huh…Was this always here the first time we came in…?” Lotte asks. The spirit tried to answer, only to give a shrug. 

She withdraws from the wall to engross herself onto the portrait. All of a sudden, several emotions of intrigue erupted slowly in her mind. The presence of the painting formally on the floor was no longer so ominous, but rather what it had on it. 

Staring back into the blonde’s eyes was a subdued lady the same age as her. She was garbed in a gleaming black dress while light-purple hair spilled all the way over her shoulders. What made her more interesting to look at was her oddly pale skin, her fangs rising out of her barred mouth, and a menacingly red iris that made Lotte gulp as she gazed onto them more. This was a painted photograph…Did she really have such gore-soaked eyes? And since when can humans grow fangs that sharp? Why does she have the perfect qualities of the undead? There was no way the girl in the painting could have been a real person. But Lotte could agree on a couple things to herself. “…Reminds me of Arthur from my nightfall novels.” The blonde articulates. “…I don’t know why but…I feel like I can stare at her all day if I wanted to.”

After some time being in front of the painting, Lotte and her spirit walk back to the room and forget that there was even some notion a while ago. But something bothered the blonde, moments after she had discovered the portrait. It was as if the character in the picture was still staring back at her, or at least it was watching her from anywhere. She tried no to overthink it. Perhaps she was just so absorbed with seeing the grandeur of the somber portrait lady that now it was imprinted in her mind. 

Back to the room she went, abandoning the hallway to be unoccupied. Or so she thought.

 

….. …… …… ……

The mushrooms and stems on the floorboards were growing gradually larger and emitting a smell within reach through parts of the hall. Overlaying the portrait was a shadow, blanketing the prominence of the pale girl with nothing but darkness. The shadow was not of natural dynamics like a positioning of sunlight, rather it fit the physique of a person…that so happens to be rising above the floor. A presence in the hall lasted for a minute, yet it remained unaware to Lotte who kept herself busy again in the room to even bother. 

Breathing. The sound of bodily ventilation was amplifying around the portrait and the mushrooms. It was heavy, yet still, nothing rose out of Lotte’s room. “…I’ve waited too long, I need flesh for me to rot…” another whisper augments. “You won’t be so lucky today, you intruder…” The shadow blocking the portrait shrinks, and the mushrooms stop growing at the same time. The hall was finally barren as how it should have been. 

…Lotte, back behind her desk with her will-o-wisp, picks up Dianna’s letter again and traces back where she had left off. The atmosphere of her writing did not change, but it gave off a sudden variance to the blonde as if the Britt had transcribed with anxiousness. 

_“This spirit in particular has only been accounted for once, with the witness also barely extant in this world to finish the full story. So after looking upon reports, the house has had several histories of murder in its time, hence one of them must have spawned the spirit per se and became a murderer itself to continue the streak. So I advise you, with all the concern I can give, flee the presence of the ferocious entity if it does so exist. I find it impossible to tame this kind of faerie if its sole purpose is to kill.”_

Lotte begins to feel a saddened, if not horrified sentiment as she read. She knew spirits can have a malicious desires compared to others of its kind, but to be faced with one personally would leave her in confusion to what is there to do. “It must be rough having to live here as a faerie then…” she assumes quietly. 

_“Akko is just as naïve about the ACTUAL circumstances of the property. She expresses a lot of care for you as much as I do for her, so I regretfully decide to lie and say that you would be well. But by the time this letter is sent, I will not really know for sure…_

_Anyway, I still hope greatly that you are taking care of yourself whilst in your hometown. Ignoring all the disheartening pasts of the house, you will find it to be fascinating and elegant in its own matter. May I continue to connect with you more soon and best regards…_

_-Dianna”_

 

The letter gently refolds and becomes stacked with Akko’s. Lotte decides to think for a moment, precisely about what Dianna was trying to convince on what was lurking inside the house. It’s been well over a day since it had been sold by her, and nothing was so paranormally special about it. Kind to think of it…she’s had the house for a good amount of time and she barely tried to communicate with any of the possible faeries here. The help of harboring spirits would be much help into exploring more of the house as the afternoon was still fresh. 

“Normally I just talk to spirits when I’m in absolute trouble but…” Lotte says to herself. “…I should prove Dianna and Akko that nothing here is going to harm me here, isn’t that right?” the will-o-wisp nods with one last grin for her friend, soon hopping back to the skull basket for another slumber. Lotte stands again and makes her way to the egress of the bedroom. 

Out of nowhere, she was apprehending an instant change of the hall. It was in a second where she flinches and seals her palm over half her face to resist inhaling an odd resonance. It was near the point of vomit-inducing as if something had decayed for years, but the blonde tried to be assured that she could tolerate it to some extent. Was it coming from the mushrooms? Lotte was literally there a moment ago, it reeked with nothing! Still, she refuses to verbally define her confusion and decides to walk out of the corridor as swiftly she had intended. She sought for the stairwell, only to stop in her tracks inadvertently to be a meter close to the mushroomed floor. 

The ground, surprisingly, was not bemusing Lotte at all. She could have sworn that she felt something gently caressing the back of her hair, like the tip of five fingers desiring to coil onto her locks. The Finn was paralyzed from shock, the outside of the second floor was entirely vacant, but she had no wish to turn and see if she was certainly alone. 

Her hands were suddenly clenching now. She knew there was something behind her hastily walking back and forth, small yet heavy air even blowing over the sides of her shoulder and up her neck. It didn’t feel like a will-o-wisp or any passive faerie was causing Lotte’s disturbance. It felt too human, the blonde gulped nervously as soon as she no longer felt the pacing behind her anymore. A somnolent frown with broadened eyes still lasted on the blonde for an extra minute, and hesitantly, she was taking another step until she crossed the painting and mushrooms. 

Sereneness slowly begins to overtake, at least for a split second…

_“HEHEHEHE HEHEHE”_

The brash and sudden sound of laughter augmenting through Lotte’s ear made her heart beat so fast that her blood was rushing everywhere, almost enough for it to escape her ears. She screams for her life in a matter of seconds knowing she must be in danger. Finally imminent on her instincts, she quickly chooses to turn around to see there was….nothing……..the whole time…

No. wait…This was way too wrong...Lotte hesitantly looks around left to right. There was really just nothing but a semi-dark room with only the carpets, mushrooms and the painting around like it always was. She was keeping her ground as her body still trembled after feeling strained. The poor girl could hear herself hyperventilating out of shock and was still processing whether or not her chilling occurrence was real. Her ear drums still bounced, it had to be somehow. 

“I’m okay, I’m okay…” she whispers, consoling herself again. “I couldn’t have imagined everything. Where is it now…?”

In fear that it may come again, she paces swiftly and watchfully down the stairs and takes refuge in any room she stumbles across.

 

….. …… …… …… …… 

 

The sun was eventually down. Every room without a decent light installed yet had a candle or two from Lotte’s provisions lying somewhere. The blonde herself however, barely went back upstairs. A cup of tea hovered over her lap as she was sitting down on an ottoman and gazing outside the living room window. Cold was becoming colder, and not much was engaging to see or hear than just some candlelight flickering against the reflection of the window. If only it were a faerie though. Lotte had excavated every few yet open rooms in the whole household and she was hesitant to even call upon any spirit after the incident in the hall. She was calmer now, but still terrified after the past few hours. 

“I guess Dianna must be right.” She says. “Maybe there is a fierce spirit in this house. But I wasn’t brave enough to confront it…” a sip of her tea tried to make her more composed. “I hope it comes back soon, so that I can try to pacify it. But at the same time…I don’t want to feel or hear it again. Ugh…what’s wrong with you, Lotte…?” she let out a frustrated sigh. 

By the stairs, a couple torches that were lit an hour ago suddenly go out. Lotte was still absorbed by her own gushes to even notice it. But it doesn’t stop the fact how a discrete kind of gloom was slightly popping out of the living room’s entry. A silhouette for that matter. The darkness was nourishing whatever entity was in the room, causing the presaged shadow to take some color. Slowly from bottom to top, tarnished white rags were tinting until long pace hair swerved vertically and elegantly with it. Soon, the image of a full, blemished human took form out of the silhouette. It was tall and pale girl, bruised in her physique, eye glowing blood red, who now lounged secretly in the area. 

The mystically spawned lady began to stretch her limbs and hind, stroking lengths of her long hair while she yawns. It’s bemusing to think that anything so peculiar could act pretty human. But her intent, as her eyes later locks onto the melancholy blonde in the living room, was FAR from human. 

“There you are again…” she whispers from the distance. Her voice was raspy and high-pitched, an admittedly innocent voice to listen to. “…The way how you’re spending time in my house puzzles me badly…And how you still live is troubling me too.” She remembers how she stalked her from the hall earlier and how she staged every unusual instant. One thing she regretted was how slow she was to murder Lotte. If the blonde hadn’t turned around from fear, the spirit taking her time to indulge in her victim’s complexion, she would have easily taken her blood away in a stroke and drag her corpse away…Alas, there she was, still breathing and hoping that she could the same spirit that harassed her. What a questionable lady to harbor this place. 

The humanoid lets out a sigh. “I’m wasting my time playing with her….” she whispers aggressively to herself this time. The night made her fully rested than in broad daylight to assault, she hated to waste her strength on being reasonable. “It’s more fun to be alone…and her corpse as fertilizer for more mushrooms…that’s even better…” 

On the spur of the moment, she sees Lotte slowly stand up from the ottoman with her cup of tea. “I should go up…” the blonde says, too tired to worry about getting hurt anymore. The violet haired entity hides herself through the furthest, darkest corner to avoid being seen. She would not want Lotte to run away and hide from her horrendous presence and make it harder for massacring her. The blonde ambles to the kitchen to grab a dozen more candles and head to the staircase. She tries not to mind that the candles there were bafflingly out as maybe the temperature getting lower was its cause. 

The humanoid silently watches her ascent and head back to the hall. Coming out of the shadows again, her feet levitate a meter off the ground and goes to stalk her yet once more. Transporting from one room to another felt like driving a Segway while asleep, not like she would know anything on how to ride one anyway. She finds herself soaring carefully up the stairs, up to the beginning of the corridor. Seems like Lotte had already lit the candles for her room as light was glimmering somewhere on the end. The pale lady stops levitating and gently lands her feet by the doorway. Half of her face peeks through the precinct and sees the blonde in a sudden change of light-blue lounging clothes and slaving away on the desk with her will-o-wisp again. What could she possibly be contemplating about this time? 

“…I’m sorry, I didn’t try talking to any faeries while I was down.” She says. “I guess I was a little side-tracked.”

The fire spirit mews and ambles to Lotte’s tea cup so he could heat her drink a little. The blonde giggles and picks it up for a sip. “Thank you.” She obliges. At least she had one company that made her feel solaced in times of frustration. The cup was now empty with nothing but the tea bag in it. Now she just needed time to completely calm until she could perhaps gain the desire to sleep. 

The blonde looks around the room and realizes all the second-hand ornaments that had been placed before she moved in. The bed, shelves, countertops, she suddenly lets out a chuckle. “I should have started here if I wanted to meet some spirits.” She utters. The will-o-wisp starts to make a high sound calling her attention as he was pointing at a certain object on the desk. It was stashed away in between stacks of old books despite its odd shape. 

Lotte analyzes, recognizing right away what it was. Her smile grew bigger as she grasps it and reveals a tiny scroll with red ribbons on each wooden end, an item she has held onto since she was little. Rolling it open revealed to be a music score of a short lullaby that’s been preserved for generations, each tone and range in the transcript already imprinted in her mind. She can recall how many times she had sung this piece during events, prayers and holidays. 

“The song…So this is how I’ll see if any faeries are here…” she says contented. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt use this.” as she had one of the most important heirloom of her homeland in her grasp. 

But as she read, the violet-haired girl had already taken her course of action. “Time’s finally up…” She glared at her with her pupil becoming more blood-soaked and deep. Her hands began to rise quaveringly while all of a sudden, a heap of green-ish smoke started to surround her. “Just one inhale of my poison and you’ll be nothing but a lifeless meat sack…” she says in her mind. “Time to say goodbye to our pointless foolery...!” The gas around her soon began moving into the doorway and gradually leads itself to Lotte’s chair. She doesn’t resist her grin and faint laughter elicited by the guess of what her flesh would feel like tainting after this. It will be exquisite. 

…Her malicious indulge suddenly stops. The sound of an angel had made her distracted for a final time…

_Close your eyes_

_as the white petals fall to the ground_

_Ease into the gaze_

_Of the Mother’s polar night_

Lotte sang in the top of her lungs, letting out the unexpected grace and harmony of her voice to augment in the room. Such flawlessness and innocence has never engaged any part of the house before. The humanoid froze with astonishment. 

_And fall asleep…_

The blonde continues to repeat the same single stanza with her splendor of a voice. Behind her, the grin of the pale lady wipes away into an opened frown. The sound of her melody had traveled all the way into her head until it minced her heart senseless. She did not know what she was processing, but the gas she had unleashed was now forcefully withdrawing out of the room and disappearing into nothingness. All the ghost could feel was this trembling romanticism. She wanted Lotte to keep singing.

All of a sudden, the furniture began to engulf with small blazes of fire. The flames resembled the physique of Lotte’s fire spirit with tiny bodies and minuscule faces engulfed with various shapes of fire. She did it. The faeries rejoined to her singing! 

The room was glimmering like an elaborate light show, Lotte being the orchestrator and the violet-haired ghost as the audience. What a spectacle to see in a house already grand with extraneous’. The faeries already commenced speaking as mews of different pitch interjected with Lotte’s singing. The blonde stops on the last line when the last few faeries appear on her desk. “Haha…It worked…!” she says cheerfully. “I can finally see you all.” She briefly turns around from her seat front and back and return to the desk again. “Look how many of you there are…!”

Her first acquaintance starts with the ones by her books. “It’s nice to meet you. My name is Lotte, Lotte Yanson.” She starts off cheerfully. The faeries reply in a tone unperceivable to human ears. Yet, the freckled girl could make out completely what they all wanted to say. “It’s nice to see you too.”

“She’s…talking to them…” the girl outside utters. “Amazing…” 

She could not believe what her eyes were picking up. Around ten, maybe twenty spirits were inside the room and all facing towards the blonde as she spoke. Actual conversations were forming between the living and the other worldly. And at the same time, it resonated a big mutual energy. Lotte and the new faeries practically became friends in the blink of an eye!

Her nurturing voice, her approach to spirits, her overall gentle and overjoyed nature since she first arrived, these were enough to inquire why anyone would want to intend harm on her. “I. I can’t do it anymore.”

Lotte had numerous questions in her mind that she had reserved for amending well into her new home and other inquiring thoughts. Were there any more spirits harboring all of the rooms? Were they the reasons why the house was always spotless? Was everything in the house perfectly in order and in no need of fixing? Each of them had simple answers. A nod or a voice indicating Yes. She just had one more question to help her more.

“What were the previous owners of the house like?” she did not expect an accurate answer as these were the faeries of the room, not exactly the whole property. But they all still contributed to answering…It was not as kind as the rest of the answers before.

‘scary’

‘boring’

‘mischievous’

‘rude’ 

‘dead’ 

Lotte grew concerned. She inhales and prepares for a follow-up on the subject of the owners. But out of the blue, the faeries stop facing their guest and instead, out the doorway where they distinguished a familiar figure to them. They let out a tiny yelp and frighteningly put themselves out without bidding Lotte goodbye. They were back in hiding to their old materials, only concerning Lotte even more.

“Huh…? What were they-“ she says and tracking the direction of where the faeries were facing; by the door.

Still frozen from admiration, the pale ghost notices Lotte’s eyes and snaps out of her daze. “Oh shit…!. In a second, she dashes away from the area and flees to wherever she can, no time to levitate or even think of a proper escape. 

The blonde gasps dumbfounded. That was…a person she just saw, wasn’t it? She quickly rises up her seat and lets her will-o-wisp jump onto her shoulder for aide as they amble outside. There was no one by the hall, especially anywhere by the railing of the stairs. But it wasn’t long until she perceives a thud augmenting downstairs. That’s it, time to catch the culprit in her home. 

She rushes down the flight of large steps until stopping on the floor where candles no longer lit. Lotte let out her hand and nodded at her tiny friend. The fire spirit proceeds to land on her palm and gradually upsurges his glow. It looked like Lotte was now holding an oblique globe of fire, forming a torch out of her hand as if she were a mage (looked and sounded badass to be honest). But suddenly, as the room brightened more, Lotte commenced spinning at each corner until the farthest one was chosen to stay brighten.

The blonde screeches in the top of her lungs, seeing a girl in rags with long light hair was slouching face-first onto the corner. Where did she¬¬––––Actually no. She’s had enough questions for the whole day and night. Her fear was channeled as soon as she realizes that the image of the unkempt girl was feeble compared to her. Sure, her presence and outlook was a tad unpleasant. But she won’t stand to jump to conclusions. “Please…s-show yourself now…” she says cautiously.

Angered voices went through the mind of the stranger. “Damn it damn it damn it damn it…Way to find a hiding spot smart-ass.” she thought while squinting. “She better not come another inch near me…” 

There was still no response to Lotte’s hesitant command. “I promise I won’t do anything to you.” She clarifies. “Just…please show me who you are.”

It was pointless to bid into this examination. The girl could easily disappear like the phantom she is and avoid her until dawn. But she had this certain fear, if Lotte was persistent enough to hunt her down throughout the house and disturb her even more. “I don’t have a choice, do I…?” her final thought ensued. She sighs deeply and decides to obey her interrogator. Her white dusty nightgown and unnaturally bleached skin was bestowed upon the blonde, the two aspects that were enough to prove that she was irregular amongst these parts. 

Lotte’s eyes widen the more she examined who this lady was. She brought her hand closer for the fire spirit’s light to assist her. It was her elegant pace hair that traveled down her face and chest in which she couldn’t help but feel astounded by. Her complexion was just as familiar and dazzling to see. Fangs, solemnness, one part of her hair blocking half her face was a hell of an aesthetic. But while her heart was racing mysteriously, she found herself in a state of shock when she stared directly back into this girls’ red eye. No, this was too good to be true.

“It’s you…” she says. “You’re…You’re the girl in the portrait upstairs.”

Well, it was fantastic to know that she noticed that now but… “And you’re not afraid to see me right now…?”

“I don’t know why I would be,” she asks. “considering I’ve already seen you before.”

The blonde saw how her new acquaintance was slightly trembling from this conversation. The pale girl could not recall the last time she directly talked to another person before, whether she was alive or dead. “But you look different compared to your photo…” Lotte continues. “Up close, you look really…….

Nope, she could stop right there. It was already foreseen what she wanted to say as her looks were too obvious to despise. Malicious, frail, horrendous, why bother listening? Her head was lowered and looked the other direction while she waited for the blonde to finish her sentence anyway.

“…gorgeous.”

Something engulfed her heart as her face was shifting to a light pink color...It didn't sound like a joke, but she lightly shook her head in denial and forced her infatuation to lock itself. 

“...I want to know where you came from though…” Lotte says. “You were never here before when I moved in.”

This was sort of a question that needed more than one answer. But this was worth a try… “I’ve been uh…hiding everywhere for a really long time…” she replies. “Even after death, I still stayed around the house. And even when other people wanted to move in, I was still here to see them die themselves…” Well that wasn’t too explicit for her, was it?

Lotte gasps in disbelief to what she just said. ‘After death’…so she was…a spirit. Of course. She was the distinct kind explained in Dianna’s letter. It was all coming together so fast and so conveniently that the blonde felt like fainting. She was not willing to leave this room right away. This was the prospect she long sought for when she first read the letter. 

“You uh…wouldn’t mind explaining everything to me, right?” she inquires, receiving a prurient hum as a reply. “I guess you also know this by now but, my name’s Lotte.”

Silence invaded the room before a simple reply. “…Sucy…” she says. “Sucy Manbavaran. That’s what I used to be called before.”

Lotte knew well how such a stunning name could blend with an equally stunning girl. “It’s nice to meet you…”

 

….. …… …… ……. ……. ……. …..

 

Sucy could not believe she was doing this. The early hours of night were upon her and Lotte, and here she was now sitting in her living room face-to-face with someone she barely knew and was unsure if she wanted to. Lotte was the polar opposite. She had never seen a faerie in this shape before. There must have been a reason for why she decided to take this form. More importantly, she wanted to know if Sucy was in fact a murderous entity, if she was the one that crept up on her in the hall. She should be attacking the blonde right now if so…Guess it only made sense that her song to call the faeries had tamed her to some extent. 

“Before I say anything, I want to know your story first…” Sucy insists. “I trust you, but I want to know why you chose my house out of all places to live in…”

Technically, it was Lotte’s. But it was best not to mention that as it will obviously anger her. “I learnt about this place from a friend…” she starts off. “She used to study on folklore and secrecies when we still studied. This house was just a topic for small talk until I found out it was an actual place for rent, so I went for it without believing it was haunted or not. I knew I would be able to handle it either way.”

“It sounds like you were in a rush at the time…” Sucy assumes to her.

“You’re right, I was.” She replies. “But before, I was starting to think twice about actually staying here. I’m really happy to be back in my country but I want to feel…Completely at home again. I just felt terribly alone here until you showed up.”

Sucy’s pity could go as far. She already knew what it’s like to seek for her own home, but her sympathy for the living has deteriorated over time. Still, there was plenty of room of what’s left of her heart to welcome Lotte when her trust is fully gained. Just one day, it might. 

“…So tell me yours, Sucy…” 

A sick feeling traveled through her mind and stomach struggling to piece her story for Lotte. Her memories are very vivid, but they were unpleasant for anyone’s desire. She’s come this far as she could get with Lotte to refuse…

“Okay…This house was built by my relatives. We obviously weren’t native here, so by default our household just had to be more accustomed to us.” She begins. “I was the oldest of three in the family, and my mom had these shady ambitions that made our family flourish. Well, she was like a hex, using tricks on people she gambled with so she could get what she wanted. I stayed quiet about it because I knew if I asked about her jobs, I’d get beaten. After all, it happened to all my sisters anyway.”

This was already the perfect intro for a crime-fiction novel as Lotte thought while listening. Only this happened in real life, which fascinated her even more. She slouches like Sucy to get closer to her voice. 

“…I guess some day, mom angered one of her so-called clients. I remember seeing this group of men with her in the same room we’re in, and they were never in a good mood. Mom tried to shut them out for good, and every night I was told to stay safe wherever I was because someone wanted to take our home as payment. I thought it was just madness or overprotection…Until this one night…was when it all happened. The night I was murdered…” 

Lotte looked down on Sucy’s palms as they slowly turned into fists clenching onto her rags. Impressively, her complexion stayed dull as she kept speaking. She had a weird sense it was not going to last…

“I thought I was just dreaming when I heard mom screaming for her mercy. And when she stopped, I just tried falling back to my actual sleep. My door including several others was forced open, and someone came by my bed. That was the end…I laid on a deathbed while an agonizing wound was putting me to sleep…” the tone of her voice became tense. “It hurt so much…I wanted it to stop. But it wouldn’t let go until I couldn’t move my body anymore.” 

This was the first time Lotte has heard the story of how a spirit became what they are now. And well…she hated it. She leaned back against her seat as her face gave the impression of how dismayed she was. The ending Sucy had to face was horrifying, so much so that she could not visualize it even if she wanted to. 

“So…How did you come back…?”

“I died in confusion and anger. I needed to come back for answers…And when I did, it only made things worse…” she replies. “I cursed anyone who came into the house my mom was trying to protect. First were my murderers, then came some oligarchs who had similar intentions to others…I didn’t care who anyone was. I just knew only bad people entered every month of the year. Those spirits in your room were probably one of them for all I know……So I had to promise my mom and my sisters that no one will hurt us anymore……Yet, I’m the only one here.”

….... ………. …… ………

Lotte did not want to come as insensitive after all this, but she swore this was going to be the last inquire to Sucy. “You said a wound put you to sleep…” she says.

“Do you want to know where it was…?” Sucy assumes. “I’m worried you might not like what you see…”

“I promise I’ll be able to handle it.” Lotte assures. 

Only the right side of Sucy’s face was discernable to Lotte, the other was partly covered by her violet hair. Sucy softly touches those locks covering the left of her complexion. “Alright then, this is it…” she says before gently brushing them aside. The wound that killed her appears, nearly giving Lotte a heart attack just by gazing upon it. 

Nothing was beneath that incasing hair but an empty eye socket, strokes of blood surrounding the edges of the circle. It was as if all the blood had been completely washed out of Sucy’s head. Nothing but a pitch black vacuum was all that was looking back at Lotte. 

“I was staked in the eye, Lotte…” she says. “I had to feel it pierce through me for over a minute….”

You poor thing. Imagining what it was like to hear her scream, to see her struggle, to have absolutely no idea what she did to deserve it, it hurt Lotte just as bad. 

“It still hurts you. I know it must be…” she says. The violet-haired girl nods. “Don’t worry…I would never try to threaten you the same way the others did…”

Sucy watches in confusion as Lotte was raising her arm and slowly . She lets out a sigh. “Lotte, don’t bother...” She says. “I know I can touch you but you’ll probably just go through me¬–––.” 

…….. Silence invaded the room abruptly, something astonishing had ignited the two girls once again. Sucy felt the blonde’s hand meet with the injured side of her face. She gasps continually while she engages in the mortal warmth of her palm cupping her cheek. Lotte had never felt such a…freezing sentiment on a spirit before. Her decayed pale skin and shrill fangs gave her chills down her spine, but she resisted withdrawing her hand out of fear. She proceeds to caress her gently with her thumb stroking against the areas around her eye socket. “

Sucy coats her own palm over Lotte’s and gently presses it against her face. The softness of her grasp reminded of her of the times when she was still alive, when her mother would also cup her face to console her. She couldn’t believe how she forgot what it was like to receive such cordiality. All her anger seemed to have drifted away when this girl in front of her decides to gift her with infatuation.

“….It’s been so long…..” Sucy murmurs. 

She breaks a tear, unable to close her both her eyelids and hold it back. Lotte was mesmerized……Blood…spilling out of Sucy’s eye socket as it trailed down Sucy’s face and poured onto their hands. The red liquid vexed the blonde’s hand and made her freeze tentatively. It continued to spill non-stop like a waterfall made of nightmares, until the back of her palm was stained heavily with gore. 

She wasn’t like anything Lotte has ever talked to. She was tortured far beyond her prediction, too overwhelmed with anger because it was the last thing she remembered. No spirit should endure whatever pain Sucy was feeling before this. Lotte did not want her hand to let go anymore, as long as it made her feel safer she did not have a reason to.

“I’m…I’m…sorry...that I tried to hurt you.” Sucy utters. "…It was cruel of me to think I would take an angel for granted...”

Lotte brings herself closer to the violet-haired spirit and wraps her other arm around her waist. She and Sucy’s head were now over their shoulders. The light-colored outfit of the freckled girl was dripping with just as much blood as her hand this time. 

“It’s okay. I’m glad I got to see you, and I don’t want you to be left like this...” Lotte utters

Eventually, Sucy’s red tears stop flowing, leaving her face and everywhere else to look homicidal. She was calmer, a new kind of calm. “…Thank you…”

**Author's Note:**

> (making Sucy violent towards Lotte was the hardest thing I've ever done, but good thing it wont be like that anymore :))) )
> 
> I really hoped you guys enjoyed anyway, I’ll do my best to improve the story and continue to make more Sulotte for everyone to come along and enjoy. I love the ship so so much but I’m in a lot of doubt if I’ll ever do a good job in helping it flourish starting with this mess of a work…


End file.
